The “Latin American Network of Planetary Science and Space Exploration”, a community-driven initiative for the region

• Introduction

Latin America is a region that has important advantages for creating international scientific networks: most of the continent shares a sociocultural background, population is young and more educated year by year, and most importantly, all countries speak only two languages. Nevertheless, efforts to create a community centered in planetary science have proven difficult, mainly due to a low representation of scientists in the area. However, the situation has started to change in the last years, workshops and scientific events, supported by organizations like Europlanet and COSPAR, have brough together scientists from different countries. A result of these initiatives was the formation of the “Red Latinoamerica de Ciencias Planetarias y Exploración Espacial” (RCPyEE) in June of 2025, a community-driven organization to advance planetary science in the region. At this point the network has been active for one year and has gathered more than 200 people in the region and hosted multiple activities. 

• How it came to be

The first encounter that paved the way for the formation of the RCPyEE was the “COSPAR Capacity Building Workshop in Planetary Science Data” (Figure 1). This event held in 2023 in Antofagasta, Chile, was driven by an interesting premise: networking was important, even more that the science discussed. Most of the participants were already doing master of doctoral studies in diverse areas of planetary sciences but were not aware of the work of the others or the groups they work on. This was especially true between participants from the south and north of Latin America, as international collaboration has occurred mostly at local levels.

This event resulted in lasting collaborations and was the starting point for future events on the upcoming years. Four workshops were organized by local scientific communities with the aid of Europlanet, two in Bolivia in 2023 and 2024, one in Argentina in 2023, and one in Colombia in 2025 (Figure 2).

Figure 1: COSPAR Capacity Building in Antofagasta, Chile, 2022.

Figure 2: First Europlanet Planetary Workshop in Bogotá, Colombia, 2025.

These opportunities were valuable to train young generations of planetary scientist and to strengthen the connections within them, this momentum eventually culminated in the next logical step, the creation of the RCPyEE in June of 2025, which gather both people that have been working on the field for decades as well as those that are just starting to incur in the field. 

• Structure and activities

The RCPyEE is an open community with the aim of reaching all the countries of the region. We noticed that there is a big gap in development between countries with strong research systems like Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay; and those that are just developing like Bolivia and Paraguay. By uniting the community from all the countries, we expect that those with more experience can give a hand to the ones that are just beginning, with the RCPyEE acting as a central point for this to happen.   

The RCPyEE is managed by three founding members and six members of the overseeing committee, all of them from different countries and in different stages of their careers. Most of the activities are developed by the national points of contact, usually two or three representatives of each country, which have the task of mapping and consolidating their local communities. A group of senior scientists from the region and beyond conform the international advisors, which have the role of supporting or suggesting activities for the network. Finally, the members are all the participants involved in the RCPyEE, which today are more than 250.

The main purpose of the network is to be a hub for those interested in planetary science across the region, for this reason, our initial effort went on the construction of a website (https://cienciasplanetariaslatam.com/) (Figure 3), which records the name, location, and institution of all the members, as well as the information of national networks collaborating with the RCPyEE. We also organize regular activities, like invited talks, seminars of articles, podcasts, outreach content in social media, introductory lessons to planetary science; and occasionally, workshops in specific countries and in collaboration with local universities, in order to bring attention to potential new members.

Figure 3: Webpage of the RCPyEE.

• Future work

After the first year of activities, the next step for the network is to officialize its presence in one of the member countries, this will allow more opportunities for engagement and the development of larger projects. Since the main objective of the network is to bring the Latin American community together, we will start contacting the different actors in the region, so we can stablish a solid catalogue of their activities, location, and contacts, thus allowing an easier integration with the greater community.

The RLCPyEE is always interesting in having new members, those interested can easily join following this link: https://cienciasplanetariaslatam.com/new-member.